Myst III: Exile

Posted by Jim Aikin.
First posted on 22 March 2007. Last updated on 15 May 2014.
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I'm lousy at solving complicated puzzles. The reason I like adventure games is because they let me poke around in an exotic world, and that's both the bad news and the good news about Myst III: Exile—the worlds to be explored are breathtakingly beautiful, but the puzzles are very, very hard.

Myst III: Exile is loosely a continuation of the storyline begun in Myst and continued in Riven: The…

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Previous Comments

Very Good

I just played Exile again after eight years. I was very happy that I remembered almost none of the puzzle solutions. I'd even forgotten whole parts of the game entirely, so it all felt fresh. It is true that the hardest thing in the game is the navigation, particularly in the plant world, Edanna. After every single step you must reorient yourself. Also, the game in general is unnecessarily dark, but Edanna combines both bright light and darkness in the same screens. The puzzles, while good, aren't as complex or interesting as the ones in Myst or Riven. I sympathize with those like the reviewer who simply don't like elaborate puzzles. However, the "sound" puzzle in Amateria does have a logical solution. (As usual with a Cyan game, one must observe everything, and how it fits together.) I even stumbled across a couple of endings I didn't realize were possible the first time. Bad, of course. The end game also doesn't take advantage of one obvious possibility, at least that I could see. (Spoiler coming up for those who haven't played yet!) If you leave the Tamanha book on the stand downstairs, Saavedro doesn't pick it up to blackmail you with, or take it with him to trap you. I didn't go through all the variations, but I thought this was an uncharacteristic oversight by Cyan.

United States By GregC • On 25 November 2009 • From New York City

Excellent

Ringo, are you aware that there's a way of making the lift go up without actually going into it? If not, try searching the area around the lift a little more.

If you've gotten further to the (I believe 3) smaller puzzles, there should be a book or piece of paper closeby that gives very specific instructions as to what the end result should look like.

For further help, try uhs-hints(dot)com if you ever get stuck. The site gives you hints but will not give away the answer to puzzles in an adventure straight off.

Great Britain (UK) By Stefan Lubienski • On 19 June 2008 • From United Kingdom

i'm stuck at the elevator puzzle. how to solve the elevator?? help??

Canada By Ringo • On 13 May 2008 • From canada

Very Good

This review shows how hard it is to rate the difficulty of puzzles. I found them to be challenging but also fun to solve. Especially the puzzles in Amateria each had clues to them, some in another Age (sphere building), others by observing the mechanism and watching where and how it fails (the 'pegs').

But of course the general problem remains: If in Myst-style puzzles you miss clues, you are usually out of luck because the number of options for "trying everything out" is big. I had this happen to me once or twice while playing Exile, just in different places.

Overall I found Exile to be better than Riven, which had to many "far fetched" solutions, IMO

Germany By Ingix • On 02 July 2007 • From Germany

Excellent

I've read a few reviews for Exile but I can happily say this is the most accurate I've read.

Amateria is pretty but looks very artificial although I understand the world was artificially created to teach Atrus' sons lessons.

Edanna was indeed hard to locate where the two plants at the bottom of the flower were. I resorted to 4 hint guides to tell me where the entrance was.

As for the puzzles - they are most definately NOT 5/5. This is no where near a hard game in the slightest. I'd rate 2/5 or 3 maximum. The only puzzle that stumped me was the balancing puzzle in Amateria because I didn't think of the clue back in the other world. That and the final puzzle for the longest time as to where the clue might be.

I loved Brad Dourif's acting in the game. Some reviews say that he overreacts but considering he's been trapped in a world for 20 years, alone, I think it's perfectly acceptable. I don't think it's that overreacting either.

In any case Exile is a very memorable game. I almost like it as much as Revelation.

Europe By Stefan L • On 01 July 2007 • From England